


The Waif

by Catlorde



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mutant OC, OC, Romance, female oc - Freeform, original adventures, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:14:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25875733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catlorde/pseuds/Catlorde
Summary: As an alien science experiment, she remembers nothing. Knows no one. With nowhere else to turn, Claudia must rely on the Doctor and his companions for help. She's mutating. The Doctor knows more than he's telling. But why does the Time Lord seem to hate her so much?
Relationships: Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s), Tenth Doctor/Original Character(s), Tenth Doctor/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 32





	1. Prologue

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_**~0~0~0~  
  
Prologue** _

_**~0~0~0~  
.** _

If anyone living near the water in Cardiff happened to glance out their window in the time spanning between three in the morning and dawn, they might have fearfully closed the blinds, thinking they had seen a ghost.

It was the right weather for it. Cooler than usual. Moisture hung heavily in the air, condensing and dripping from power lines and fogging over windows. The stars glittered brightly despite the city lights' attempt to wash them out of the moonless sky. Perfect conditions for lost and wandering souls.

But no one walked the normally occupied streets or cast a wayward glance out between their curtains, so no one saw her.

While she definitely wouldn't have been the strangest thing a Cardiff resident had seen, the barefooted young woman with pale skin and long dark hair in a loose white dress, sitting on the curb with her knees pulled to her chest definitely would've raised a few eyebrows.

Smooth concrete pressed harshly against her rear and rough asphalt grit angrily against the bottom of her feet. She picked loose grit from between her toes, which were wet and starting to go numb.

She was on the side of a road, and that was about all she knew. In a lonely corner of a sleeping city, where the only sign of life was the intermittent blinking of the caution light suspended on a drooping wire over the center of the road.

She couldn't really find it within her to worry over her predicament. In order to be worried about where you are, you have to know where you're going; and in order to know where you're going, you have to know where you've been.

She knew none of these, so she was just sitting.

When the creaking sound started, she didn't know what it was, or even enough to be able to begin piecing together what it could be. But when the homeless man shuffled around his corner with his rusted cart, she knew that it never could have been anything else.

The homeless man was old. So old, in fact, that she wasn't sure if the creaking was coming from his cart or from his bones. He had a long white beard down to where his belly button probably was, hidden away underneath the crust of several layers of tatty clothes.

The homeless man came to a stop beside her, took a blanket from around his shoulders and, beard swaying like a poorly charmed snake, laid it on the ground.

"Here, take a seat on this," he said. "It's more comfortable than the ground."

She did as she was told and moved to sit on the blanket. He sat beside her, removing his raggedy hat to expose a thin halo of hair.

"I haven't seen you around here before," he spoke after a few moments of quiet. "I'm called Mr. Stray."

"Hello."

"What's your name?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but her mind wouldn't tell it what to say. She shrugged in place of an answer.

"No name, huh?" Mr. Stray smiled warmly, as if at a sad memory."I've tried that before. You've got to have a name. You can't get anywhere without a name."

That seemed like a strange notion to her at the time, but if the homeless man said it, then it must be true, and so she figured that she could use one.

"Where do people get names?" She asked.

"Usually you get them from your parents."

She should've known that. Parents. Her quiet mind mulled over the concept like a computer just beginning to boot up, mulling through mental files with increasing accuracy and confusion as she found that her mind was inexplicably devoid of the information she was seeking.

"If you don't want to use that one, then you can make one up. No one would know the difference. I made mine up. When you're old and got nobody and nothing to hold you to it, you can have people call you what you want. Everyone calls me Mr. Stray, though the people that knew me twenty years ago would've called me something else."

"Why?"

"That, missy, is a long story."

She wasn't sure if she knew any names, and suggested that he should give her one.

The idea must've been funny to Mr. Stray, because it made him laugh. But after a moment he seemed to take it seriously, as his brow furrowed and he seemed to be thinking hard.

After a minute or two of deep thought, he said one word. "Claudia."

"That's pretty," she decided.

"It comes from the Latin word 'Claudius'. It means 'lame' or 'crippled'."

She frowned. "That's not nice."

"Life isn't very nice," he said wisely, stars reflecting in his pale blue eyes. "It's better to know it and carry it with you than to pretend. That's why I called myself Mr. Stray, cause that's what I am. A stray mister."

That made sense to her, or at least she thought it did. "I'll be Claudia." Claudia decided, rubbing her toes to warm them.

The old man chuckled warmly. "Tomorrow, I'll help you out, and show you how to get around as a stray person, but I'm tired now. I'm going to get some sleep."

She nodded and went back to warming her feet. The homeless man stretched out long on his ratty old blanket. He stared up at the sky for a bit, scratched his chin, then his nose, and twiddled his thumbs.

"So damn restless," he complained to his young companion, who had been sitting quietly, staring out along the street. "Must be the cold."

"Must be."

After a while, the Stray Man finally managed to drift off into a peaceful slumber.

He didn't wake up again.

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _


	2. Someone

_**.** _

**~0~0~0~**

**Chapter Two: Someone**

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

Anyone walking the streets of Cardiff at approximately eight in the morning would've thought that the young woman waking the wrong way down the sidewalk was mentally challenged.

And there were people walking the streets, so many of them were thinking this.

Maybe she was a drug addict that had decided to take a walk in the sun. Maybe she had climbed out of her lover's window when his wife came home early and she only made it out with a nightgown. Maybe she had just escaped from a mental ward.

Perhaps she had. Who knew? Certainly not her.

She'd left Mr. Stray the moment she realized he was dead. Somewhere in her jumbled thoughts, she recognized that she probably shouldn't have left his body for some stranger to find, but the mix of relative safety and indifference she'd felt the night before had vanished with the rising sun. She'd panicked, for numerous reasons, and found herself trying to get as far away from the homeless man's corpse as she could.

Her mind was a confusing murky haze of information and lack thereof. None of her thoughts made sense to her, even though she presumed that they were relatively normal ones to have.

Thoughts like _Where am I?_ seemed to mock her from within her own mind, but from behind a wall of emptiness, like a question on a test that she _knew_ she ought to know the answer to. She'd studied it, but now it was gone. Stupid, forgetful girl. _Who am I?_ Don't worry, don't worry. Relax and it'll come back to you. _Where am I supposed to be? What's wrong with me?_ Just ask for help if you get lost, but they'll laugh at you if they know you've forgotten.

She felt like crying. She was lost in a place she felt like she probably shouldn't be. She mentally begged for someone to fix it. For someone to just _know_ and help her.

Claudia studied the faces of the people she passed, hoping to see a flicker of recognition in one of them, hoping that someone may recognize her and say, ' _Oh, there you are! Where have you been?'_

She felt an awful lot like an item in the lost and found. Existing in a strange sort of purgatory until someone thought to come by and claim her. Whether that person be the original owner or someone new, it didn't matter, she didn't care. A stray animal wandering the streets, trying to find her way back to her old home or into a new one.

Her bare feet began to sting and bleed, but she carried on, hoping to eventually find the place she was supposed to be.

**~0~0~0~**

**.**

**.**

**~0~0~0~**

It didn't take Claudia long to get tired. She was hungry, sad, and her feet were scraped and bleeding. She came across a nice park, one with benches and children playing on colorful plastic playground equipment, and decided to sit and rest.

A little girl from the playground came waddling up to her. She couldn't have been more than eight, with bright red pigtails and heavily freckled face. She smiled at Claudia shyly, stopping a few feet in front of her and holding out a small white flower.

Claudia smiled at the gesture. The little girl beamed back, displaying a few gaps in her smile.

"I'm Sara," the little girl announced confidently, coming the rest of the way over and clambering up on the bench beside Claudia.

"I'm Claudia," Claudia said softly, smiling down at the little flower as she twirled it between her fingers.

"Why are you so sad?" Sara was looking up at her thoughtfully, her little nose scrunched up as she tried to work out why the grownup beside her could be anything but happy.

Claudia shrugged, keeping her eyes on the flower. "I think… I think I'm lost."

"That's no good," Sara concluded. "Where do you have to go? Maybe I can help."

"I don't know. I can't remember anything."

Surprisingly, Sara didn't question it. "Like amn… amnei.."

"Amnesia," Claudia agreed in her quiet voice, slightly surprised at how easily the word had come to her.

"Yeah. How'd that happen?"

"I don't know. I just woke up. I don't even know where I am."

"You're in Cardiff," Sara answered firmly, without the slightest hint of criticism. "That's in Wales. Which is part of the UK. My teacher made us learn all about it." Her brow crinkled moodily. "And we even had to point to it on a map. I got that part right, but I messed up on Germany."

"You'll get it right next time." For the first time since she'd woken up, she smiled. It was small and nervous, but a smile nonetheless.

"Hope so. We have to do it again next week."

"Sara!"

Sara and Claudia looked up to see a tall woman staring at them with her hands on her hips. Her glare was intended for Claudia as much as it was for her daughter, full of wary disapproval and a borderline threat that said _do anything to hurt my baby, and I'll kill you._

Claudia couldn't blame her, suddenly feeling extremely self conscious about her dirty white dress and bare feet and imagining how it must look to Sara's mother. For all the mother knew, Claudia was a homeless crackhead and/or lunatic. For all Claudia knew, she was right.

"Is that your mom?" Claudia asked, wilting slightly under the woman's stern gaze.

Sara winced. "Yeah. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"That's good advice." Claudia picked at her finger nails nervously. "You should probably go back to her."

"Yeah, okay." Sara wiggled back to her feet, but instead of leaving, she spun back around to face Claudia. "In class, when I can't remember what an answer is, I think of all the things I _can_ remember. Sometimes the rest will come back. You should try it, maybe you'll remember too."

"I'll try." Claudia managed another small smile and Sara, satisfied that she'd managed to cheer the sad woman up a little, bounded back over to her mother.

Claudia watched as the mother scolded her, impressed at how nonchalant the child was in the face of her mother's wrath.

She twirled the small flower in her fingers, watching the delicate petals spin as she tried to pull her thoughts together enough to work out what she _could_ remember. She frantically scoured at the deepest recesses of her mind, looking for anything. A name. A place. A face.

There was nothing.

When an angry black SUV tore around the corner at the other side of the park, Claudia realized that there _was_ something that she knew: angry black SUVs bearing several strange people with strange science equipment and guns were probably bad.

"You!" The man who had been in the driver's seat shouted as he leapt out of the car. He was dressed in mostly blue, with suspenders and a long, thick coat that flapped around his legs. "Stay where you are!"

Claudia realized, with increasing anxiety, that he was referring to her. She stood shakily, toying with the hem of her dress, mud squishing unpleasantly between her toes. An empty brown holster jangled around the man's waist, the gun shining in his hand. Claudia swallowed nervously in spite of her cotton-dry mouth.

"An ultrasonic resonance scoop and thirteen deaths, and you thought that no one would notice?" The man loomed over her threateningly. "You got clumsy with the last one, though. Just left on the side of the street. What, did you get bored?"

Claudia's mouth opened and closed as she floundered for a response, but her throat was too tight for any sound to escape. She couldn't think of anything to say, anyway.

"Hold on, Jack. She's not like the others," one of the other people from the car interjected, a woman with dark hair, freckles, and wide spaced teeth. Her large grey eyes were soft with curiosity and pity.

The man, Jack, lacked both of those qualities. His eyes were cold. "You said that about the last one."

"Oh, be fair," the woman scoffed, "he looked twelve."

"Yeah, and he ripped out that police officer's throat," another man - a bit frog-faced, in Claudia's opinion - added. "With his _teeth_."

Whatever blood was left in Claudia's face drained at the thought. Clearly, there was some sort of misunderstanding. She hadn't killed anyone. Though, a knot twisted in her gut when she realized that she probably wouldn't be able to remember if she had or not.

"And that's not counting what the others did before they slipped off." Jack bared his teeth into something resembling a grin. "We got this one though, don't we?"

"I… I…" Claudia managed to croak.

"Ooh, she speaks!" Jack crooned, he lifted the gun so it was pointed squarely at her chest. "Let's go, sweetheart. We've got a nice, cozy cell for you to slip into. I'll buy you a drink while we have a chat."

Claudia tried to move, but her legs wouldn't obey. Her heart was beating frantically in her throat, and she could hardly hear the gawking park spectators through the sound of blood rushing in her ears. But she did catch a glimpse of Sara clinging to her mother's legs.

"I _said_ let's go!" Jack snapped, roughly shoving her shoulder so she staggered in the direction of the foreboding SUV. The tiny flower from Sara slipped from her grasp and lay forgotten in the mud.

Claudia managed a few steps in the right direction, but stumbled as the air around her began to hum. Black ate at the corners of her vision and her limbs tingled like they had all decided to fall asleep at once.

The man with the frog face pressed a finger to his ear. His eyes widened. "Tosh says there's another energy spike. She's being teleported…"

Before Claudia could contemplate what he meant, she was enveloped by a bright gold light.

"No— No, wait!" Jack's voice rang in her ears, but he sounded far away.

The man's shouts of protest faded away, replaced by a deafening ringing as the world faded into dizzying blackness.

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

She was on the floor somewhere that she wasn't before. Claudia lay still for a moment, dazed, trying to work out what had happened through the ringing in her ears.

" _Is she stable_?" A masculine voice echoed from somewhere nearby.

"Yeah. It's just the transmat, it screws with your head a bit. She'll be fine in a moment."

A loud knock echoed around her. She floundered, trying to figure out which way was up. Another few knocks rattled her, and she managed to sit up.

Claudia looked around frantically for the frightening man - Jack, and his two companions - but they were gone, as was the park. The young woman desperately tried to wrap her head around the change in scenery - from a park to what she imagined to be some sort of laboratory.

She couldn't recall anything that would help explain the phenomenon from the bank of experiences her short life had to offer, so she decided to assume that this was a normal occurrence.

A man in a pale blue coat was peering down at her through some sort of glass barrier. He looked human, but his eyes were far too yellow, rimmed by squarish black glasses. The man raised his hand to tap on the glass again, displaying unnaturally long fingers. Claudia had the odd sensation of being a fish, or perhaps a hamster, looking out at the student who was annoying the class pet.

"Hello!" The man greeted her cheerfully, giving a little wave.

She stared out at him blankly, having no idea of how she was supposed to respond. She was frightened, but no more of the man before her than of anything else she'd encountered over the past twelve hours. At least he wasn't as scary as Jack. The situation felt far too dehumanizing for her to be polite or trusting. But rude probably wasn't the way to go, either.

She was in a sort of glass cylinder that served as an enclosure. The cylinder continued high above her head to the ceiling, topped with a black vent. The floor was made of silver grating that bit painfully into her feet.

Outside the cylinder was an altogether different environment. It was white and sterile. Metal counters lined the walls, covered with various forms of intricate machinery; their purpose Claudia could only guess at.

On the opposite side of the room was an observation window. Although tinted, Claudia could make out a man on the other side of the glass. He was an older man, tall with a stern face. He was dressed in a coat like the other scientist, staring out at them with his arms crossed and a clipboard in hand.

At the sight of him, something prickled at the back of Claudia's mind. It might have been recognition, but it was too faint to be sure.

To her left, Claudia noticed three other cylindrical tanks like her own, each with its own inhabitant. From her viewpoint, she could just make out a boy in his early teens, a young woman with mossy brown hair, and a muscular man that appeared to be in his late thirties.

The scientist with glasses turned away from Claudia, picking up a clipboard as he went and ruffling though it thoughtfully. He stopped in front of the boy, who was curled up in a ball at the floor of his cell. Although his face was half hidden and his hands fisted in his hair, the blood around his mouth was clearly visible.

" _Yeah, and he ripped out that police officer's throat,"_ the frog faced man in the park had said. " _With his teeth."_

Claudia shuddered, imagining it. He looked so small and helpless now, but she didn't doubt what the man in the park had said.

" _223-A is responding negatively_ ," the man on the other side of the window mused, his voice echoing from the ceiling through speakers. " _Prepare to terminate_."

The other glanced up from fiddling with an instrument that resembled a microscope. "Aww, come on, Solane, he's the _first_ to actually accept the treatments. Surely that counts for something."

Solane simply wrote something down on the clipboard, not bothering to look up. " _Unchecked aggression and mental degradation is_ _ **not**_ _what we are trying to achieve. Don't get sentimental on me. It's unbecoming. Now, prepare to terminate_."

The younger scientist sighed and made his way over to a computer console. He typed a few lines and turned a nozzle to the right of the computer. "Proceeding."

A toxic yellow fog began seeping into the boy's cell from the ceiling vent, filling the cylinder in a matter of seconds.

Claudia could only watch with mounting horror as the boy twitched and began coughing. Within moments, he was spasming. His gangly body seizing and contorting painfully, head snapping and eyes rolling for what seemed like ages before finally, mercifully, he stilled.

"Lifesigns terminated," The younger scientist confirmed, still sounding a bit rueful.

A frightened sob escaped unbidden from Claudia's lips. She shrank against the glass, trying to put as much space between her and the horrible people as she could. The scientists ignored her.

" _Good_ ," Sloane acknowledged.

Much to her dismay, the young scientist ambled back over to Claudia's tank. He opened a small rectangular window that Claudia hadn't noticed and looked at her expectantly. "Put your arm through the hole, please."

Claudia _did not_ want to put her arm through the gap. She didn't want to be anywhere near this cold, cruel man. Her stomach was still heaving at witnessing the boy's death and had there been anything in it, she would have vomited.

"Come on," the man prompted cheerfully. "You won't get fed until you cooperate. Today's combination twenty four. You don't want to miss that, do you? You must be hungry."

The scientist's indifferently positive tone made her feel even more sick to the stomach. But he was right, she was starving. Not to mention that she was willing to bet that he would withhold food altogether until she died, if he didn't give up and gas her first.

Slowly, hesitantly, Claudia slipped her arm through the small window.

"Good girl," He praised, taking her by the wrist. In one swift movement, he pressed a tube against her arm just a few inches below her elbow. It pinched sharply, causing her to flinch.

The scientist put away the tube and took up a syringe filled with something green. He injected it into her bicep and released her.

"There. That wasn't so bad, was it? I promised a meal, now, didn't I?"

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

Days ticked by dully, or at least Claudia thought they were days. It could've been weeks, or months. The harsh artificial lights never changed intensity to indicate the difference between night and day. Meals were regular, and there were stretches of time where Dinstral, the young lab assistant, wasn't in the room, but these regularities had no relation to anything else, and therefore weren't enough to use as a method of telling time. But by her estimates, Claudia had only been wherever she was for a handful of days.

She was given bland bowls of what appeared to be porridge through the small window of her tank. Every so often Dinstral would come by to inject more of the green liquid. Then he would do something called 'Optimising'. Claudia had no real idea of what that meant, but knew that the assistant would type something in the computer, which then caused her tank to vibrate.

She couldn't really feel any difference after Optimising, but they seemed to think that the ten minute session after every injection was necessary, and Claudia wasn't in a position to protest.

After Optimization, Dinstral would take a blood sample and would go off to run tests on it, leaving Claudia alone in her glass prison.

She tried on multiple occasions to initiate conversation. She tried to ask Dinstral what was going on; what he was doing; what they wanted with her; where she came from; but he would only tsk and say that good girls didn't ask so many questions. Claudia was always offended by the statement, but, once again, wasn't in any position to object.

Her fellow prisoners weren't any help, either. The tank nearest to her was now empty. The woman one tank over didn't seem able to speak at all, simply grunting disinterestedly in response to any statement made in her direction.

The man furthest away seemed like he was the most capable of intelligent communication. His eyes weren't empty like the woman's were. They were sharp, calculating. Unfortunately, he ignored Claudia entirely, casting the barest glance in her direction at every futile attempt at attracting his attention. He spent his days staring silently out into the lab, undergoing the same procedures that Claudia was subjected to without the slightest complaint.

Then there was Dr. Sloane. Whenever Dinstral was in the room to administer injections or run tests, he was there, watching through the glass. He would make notes and give instructions, but stayed away.

Claudia wondered why. What was he afraid of? Or was the hands-on part of the test simply beneath him?

The longer she was in there, the more distraught Claudia became. Loneliness was setting in, eating away at her heart in a manner similar to how the cold from the metal grating under her feet seeped into her bones. She would have done almost anything for a hug. Her memory hadn't returned as she hoped it would. There was no one. Nothing.

Was this where she belonged? A mindless science experiment for strange humanoids to poke and prod at?

She told herself firmly that it couldn't be. She _had_ to come from somewhere, didn't she? Someone had to have given birth to her. She surely had _parents_ , right?

She focused on that, spending her spare hours imaging them in an attempt to calm her frayed nerves.

She thought maybe her mother had brown hair, as she did. She might have been kind with a musical laugh and smile lines at the corner of her eyes.

Her father might have been tall. He might have been witty and energetic. He might have had a brilliant smile and perfect white teeth.

They might have lived in the countryside somewhere. With tall trees surrounding the house and a big front yard. Bright yellow flowers might have grown there, making the air in the spring smell warm and sweet. They might have read her bedtime stories and played outside with a dog.

They might have been real, and they might have loved her.

That's what Claudia told herself, anyway. She knew perfectly well that the probability of any of it being true was incredibly low; but to a person with no memory, fiction is every bit as tangible as reality.

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

Then _finally_ , something happened.

Claudia woke up to the sound of people shouting. She sprang to her feet, shaking the groggy remnants of sleep away as she surveyed the lab, eagerly looking for the source. Her fellow lab rats did the same, getting to their feet and staring around with wide eyes, looking more alive than Claudia had ever seen them.

The lab door was still closed, so they couldn't see what was happening, but something had clearly gotten their captors agitated. Claudia pressed her palms to the glass, ignoring the cold that seeped into them from the lifeless material.

The door finally slid open as Dinstral and two other assistants came bustling in. They moved quickly, shouting things at each other in a language that Claudia couldn't understand. They tapped at the computers, hustling and gathering equipment.

The cylindrical tanks shuddered in response to whatever commands had been inputted. Claudia watched in horrified amazement as the man's tank began to sink into the floor. It lowered until the entire thing vanished through the metal-rimmed hole that had evidently been beneath it.

 _An escape hatch,_ Claudia wondered. _Where does it go?_

Both Claudia's and the woman's tanks shuddered and began to do the same. Their task completed, Dinstral and his lackeys hurried back out of the room and out of sight.

As her tank was lowered through the floor, Claudia tried to work out what was happening. The best she could figure, they were evacuating.

_To get away from what?_

Claudia was thrown to the floor, scraping her knees as her tank jarred to a halt, halfway in and out of the floor. The tank reversed, raising itself back out into its original placement before attempting to complete the cycle once more. She stayed on the floor this time, but was still jolted unpleasantly as the machine hit whatever snag it had encountered the first time.

It tried twice more, but ultimately resigned itself to remaining in its original position while the computer at the other side of the room beeped in distress, flashing red warning lights at scientists that weren't there to respond to them.

By this point, the other experiments were long gone, having been removed by their fully functioning escape hatches.

Claudia got back to her feet and knocked on the glass urgently, having no desire to be caught up in whatever had caused the scientists to leave so quickly. Not that she wanted to stay _with_ Dr. Sloane and his cronies, but that was better than being left to die in her own personal isolation tank.

"Hello?" She called, voice strained from lack of proper use. "Is anyone there? My thing… my thing got stuck!"

There was no reply. She dared calling out a few more times, but received the same result. Everyone was gone.

She wrapped her arms around herself in a poor imitation of a hug as a new kind of despair seeped into her heart. As dehumanizing and horrible as her stay here had been, it was all she knew. Change is hard, for the better and for the worse. It didn't help that she had no idea if her situation was either.

 _Please don't leave me_ , Claudia begged, not to Dinstral or Dr. Sloane, but to anyone; to her theoretical family and friends; to anyone _at all_ that might've laid claim to her. _Please don't leave me alone._

Minutes felt like hours, and even though she had been abandoned there for hardly any time at all, she felt like she'd been alone for years. So when the sound of footsteps echoed from through the open door, she barely recognized the hope that flared within her.

A man came racing around the corner, twisting wires together with more draped around his neck. He was tall and skinny with a narrow face. He wore a brown pinstripe suit and tie with light colored shoes and hair that stuck up every which way - like he'd been running his fingers through it in agitation.

The man spotted her and stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide with shock.

He stared at her for a moment, and Claudia watched as a wide variety of expressions crossed his face. Surprise. Confusion. Then winded, like he'd been punched in the gut. Then anger.

"You!" He sputtered, voice going a bit squeaky. "What are you—?"

"Doctor?" A young blonde woman in a pink sweatshirt and jeans came charging in after him. She skidded to a stop and examined the room owlishly.

"How did…? Where have…?" The man, whom Claudia presumed was called 'Doctor', wavered his way over to the glass, coming closer in a few spastic spurts, much like a worked-up dog would to something that it wasn't sure was friendly or not. His voice became strained and accusing, stress written on every line of his face. " _Why_ did…?"

"Do you know her?" The blonde asked, coming around to peer at Claudia from around the Doctor's shoulder with doe-like eyes.

"Know her… I…" The Doctor broke off, hurt and anger melting into confusion and curiosity as his eyes roved over her. "But… _What?"_

"What?" Claudia echoed with wide eyes, unnerved by the strange man but who had yet to complete a full sentence.

The Doctor pressed the button to the lock and the glass slid away, removing the barrier between them. He stepped into the cell and came uncomfortably close, peering into her confused eyes with his narrowed ones.

"Doctor?" The blonde asked again, looking uneasy as well.

His eyes darted around Claudia's face, absorbing every detail. Then he snatched up her hand. He ran his fingers over her palm, pushing and prodding at the space where her fingers met the rest of her hand.

"Show me your teeth," he ordered, peeling back his lips as an example.

Claudia did as instructed, but was alarmed when he quickly ran his thumb along the edges of her teeth. Claudia recoiled, slightly disgusted, and looked to the equally perplexed blonde for help.

"Alright, Doctor, that's enough of…" She came forward, waving her hand in the air. "...whatever this is. Who is she and what's so important about her teeth?"

The Doctor blinked and took a step back, shoving his hands into his pockets and staring at Claudia. She could practically see the cogs turning behind his deep brown eyes.

"A lot, actually. But…" He took another step towards Claudia. "Do you know who I am?"

Claudia rubbed her hands anxiously, not sure if she felt hopeful or afraid. He was certainly _acting_ like he knew her. So maybe…

"No," she said, getting a bit breathless with nerves. "Or maybe? I… I don't know. I don't know anyone."

An explosion sounded in the distance, making the floor shudder. Claudia flinched, her eyes darting back and forth as she became even more agitated.

"Claud…" the Doctor said softly but with a hint of warning, like he was addressing a child. "How d'you mean you don't know anyone?"

"I don't know." She cowered under the heat in his endless brown eyes. Then she blinked, her next-to-empty mind having caught the discrepancy. "You know my name?"

The Doctor seemed to realize his mistake. He grimaced slightly.

The floor shook once more.

The blonde stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Claudia's shoulders. "Doctor, leave it for now. Ship losing orbit, remember? We've got to go."

"Ship?" Claudia echoed, more confused than ever.

"Spaceship," the blonde stated, as if it were obvious. "We're in space. Did you not know?"

"Space?" Claudia blinked, trying to process it. Not that she had a reason to find the concept of being in space ridiculous. Nevertheless, it seemed… wrong. "Oh."

The Doctor watched Claudia for a moment longer, pain and concern warring behind his eyes, then sprang into action. He took up the wires he'd been messing with before. "Right. Got to patch this into the mainframe, bypass the…" He glanced back up at the two women. "Rose, take her back to the TARDIS. I'll be along in a minute."

"Right, this way." Rose guided Claudia through the empty corridors, reassuring her every time the other girl flinched at a sudden sound.

"Where have all the people gone?" Claudia asked, peering around corners, expecting one of the scientists with the blue coats to come around them at any moment.

Rose grinned mischievously. "The Doctor locked them all in the cargo hold. Don't worry, they can't get out."

"Oh, okay."

What else could she say?

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _


	3. The Box

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**Chapter Three: The Box** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

The room Claudia was in was impossible.

Or at least she thought it must have been, but she couldn't exactly consider herself to be an authority on things that should and shouldn't exist. But it definitely wasn't anything like she had seen before in her short life.

Rose had guided her through long hallways of the facility and into some kind of storage space. Within the closet, amongst the neatly packed boxes of papers and scientific equipment, sat what Claudia could only think of as a blue wooden shed.

At first, she had been too afraid to set foot in it. It was too similar in size to the glass cylinder she had just escaped and it had taken Rose several minutes of coaxing before Claudia was willing to cross over the threshold and into the bizarre world beyond.

And it _was_ a world all its own. Inside the box was easily the largest room Claudia could remember being in. The floor was metal, much like the grating of the floor of the tank. But the light was warm, organic. The room stretched up into a massive dome, held up by coral struts. At the center of the room was a console, covered on all sides by a wonderful assortment of buttons, levers, and other strange devices.

"It's beautiful," Claudia breathed as she wandered further into the ship, plucking up the courage to brush her fingers along the smooth metal of the console.

"Yeah, isn't she?" Rose agreed, grinning at the other girl's simple, childlike wonder.

"She?" Claudia echoed, accepting the pronoun without much thought. Why shouldn't the beautiful place be a She? "What's she called?"

"The TARDIS." The blonde answered, her tongue poking out between her teeth. "She goes anywhere. In time, too."

"Time?" She accepted it instantly, as she had everything else despite the gut instinct hat she should have thought it impossible.

"Brilliant, isn't it?" Rose circled the console, running a hand along it as she went. She made it back in front of the other girl, studying her with kind curiosity. "And you said your name was Claudia?"

"Yeah." Her voice came out smaller than she wanted it to. "Maybe."

"So, where are you from? How do you know the Doctor?"

"I don't know," Claudia shrugged, trying to hide how vulnerable the questions made her feel. She liked Rose. Her lack of memories made her feel tainted. The last thing she wanted was for her to think she was crazy. Or defective.

"You don't know what? The Doctor?"

"No."

"But he knows you." It was a statement, not a question.

Claudia shrugged and stared down at her toes, not sure how else to respond.

Rose nodded thoughtfully. Claudia wasn't sure if the blonde believed her or not, but she seemed willing to leave it for now.

"What about where you're from? Where's home?"

"Don't know," she admitted quietly, fiddling with the hem of her sleeve.

"What, you haven't got a home?"

She shrugged again, not meeting Rose's penetrating stare.

Rose shifted uncomfortably, but persisted. "What about family?"

Claudia forced herself to look the other woman in the eye. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Her eyes narrowed and a skeptical grimace twisted her pretty features, as if she was having trouble understanding how someone could just _not know_ about their parents. Claudia cowered, feeling naked under the blonde's judgmental gaze. "How d'you mean?"

"I mean: I don't know." She tried her best to seem indifferent, but only managed to come off as a sheepish child.

"You can't remember?"

"No."

"So what _can_ you remember?" Rose said in a slow, calm tone that Claudia found oddly belittling.

"Not much. I was on the side of the road, a few days ago, but beyond that…" She tried another shrug, as if it were no big deal. "There's nothing."

Rose nodded slowly, a flicker of mild alarm and concern replacing her skepticism. "Nothing?"

Before Claudia could elaborate, the Doctor burst through the doors. He bounded lightly across the room, footsteps clanging louding on the grating, coming to a stop at the console, where he began pressing buttons and pulling levers in a flurry of motion.

"Hang onto something. It's gonna get a bit bumpy," Rose instructed Claudia, who, while confused, immediately snagged onto the railing.

With an onslaught of terrible sounds, the entire place began to shake. The center of the console heaved like a great beast as her passengers were tossed about the room.

"Don't worry, it's meant to do that," Rose assured, tossing a smile at the frightened Claudia. She then lunged to grab hold of the console, making her way to the Doctor's side, where she asked, "What happened?"

"Ship's losing orbit. I've got to lock onto the Storm Drive before it enters the atmosphere." At Rose's confused expression, he elaborated, "Great big old science vessel needs great big power cells. If they hit the surface they could wipe out half the planet."

"Must be Tuesday," Rose grinned. She did that a lot. Claudia wondered if her face ever ached from it.

The Doctor returned it, but it seemed to be more of an afterthought than as an expression of how he was actually feeling.

With a flourish, the Doctor slammed a final lever into place and the room stilled.

"There we go! Timaltian vessel out of Earth's orbit, safely on it's way to the sun."

"The sun?" Rose argued. "Isn't that a bit extreme?"

The Doctor shrugged, evidently unbothered. "If I just leave it, it would be an open invitation for them to come straight back and pick up where they left off. Can't have them sending your lot into a panic now, can we?"

"What about the people?"

The Doctor began fiddling with the console. "They'd all evacuated by the time I rerouted the power. Whatever they were doing, they had it all packed away in the escape pods and halfway across the solar system before I could get anywhere near it. So…" he spun on his heel to face Claudia, his eyes hardening inexplicably. "That brings us to you."

Claudia fidgeted with the sleeve of her dress. It was identical to the one she woken up in. Dinstral had provided a new one every couple of days, passing the fresh one through and collecting the old through the small window in her tank. She'd been a bit embarrassed at changing in front of other people, but had gotten used to it quickly. She'd _had_ to.

"What were you doing on that ship?" The Doctor asked with a sharpness that Claudia didn't feel was justified.

"I don't know," she responded quietly, hating those words more and more as time wore on. Even _she_ was beginning to wonder if those were the only words she knew.

"What do you mean _you don't know_?" The Doctor snapped, causing her to flinch slightly at the tone. "What kind of rubbish answer is that? You were there, in the lab while they were experimenting. _Surely_ you'd have been able to pick up on something. Or are you just thick?"

The outburst shocked both of the young women equally, but Rose wasn't as limited by the same uncertainty as Claudia.

" _Doctor!_ What the _hell's_ gotten into you?" The blonde snapped, coming to Claudia's defense. "She said she's got no memory past a couple weeks ago. So if she says she doesn't know, _she probably doesn't know_. Alright?"

The Doctor didn't apologize but at least seemed to realize that he'd been out of line. He took a step back and frowned before reaching into his jacket and pulling out a slender silver tube with a glowing blue light at one end. He held it out and waved it around Claudia's head.

"Human. Female. Twenty three, give or take," the Doctor mused, half to himself. "Odd. Very odd."

"How's that odd?" Rose inquired.

"What?" The Doctor rocked back on his heels awkwardly. "Odd? Why would that be odd? Human. Perfectly normal _human_."

"You said it was odd," Rose pressed, not about to let it go.

"Did I say odd?" He fumbled. "I meant to say not-odd. Completely average."

Rose rolled her eyes but let it drop. The Doctor returned his attention to Claudia.

"So what _did_ you notice?" He asked, more controlled this time, though she didn't miss how his eyes refused to rest entirely on her face. She tried not to feel hurt by it, but what Mr. Stray had said about being crippled flashed in her mind.

"Assistant Dinstral would come by sometimes to give us injections and start an Optimizing cycle," she explained, her voice so low that it was nearly swallowed up in the spacious room. "But other than that they left us alone."

"'Optimizing', what's that?"

She tried to explain it the best she could. It was pathetic, at best, but the Doctor seemed to grasp the gist of it.

"Cellular remodulation through harmonic resonance? Could be. Science is a bit _shaky_ , mind you…" The corners of his lips twitched up at the pun, earning a small smirk from Rose. "But could be. What about those injections?"

"They were green," Claudia offered, though she knew it wouldn't be much help.

"Right, because _that_ really narrows it down," he sighed sarcastically. "Were there any others or was it just you?"

"There were three of us. There were four, but…" Claudia trailed off at the memory of the young boy convulsing as he was suffocated by gases.

"But?"

"They… _terminated_ one," she admitted bitterly.

Rose grimaced but the Doctor didn't bat an eye. "Because the experiment went wrong. What for?"

"Umm… they said he was aggressive." She shuddered, remembering the blood that had been drying on his mouth and chin. "I think he killed someone, on Earth."

"That's what brought us to the ship," Rose added. "The killing. Human experiments set loose on Earth. That's how we found you."

"There were people that found me before I was brought to the lab, they thought that I had killed someone," Claudia murmured.

"Did you?" Rose asked sharply.

"I don't _remember_ hurting anyo…" Claudia hurried to explain.

"I doubt it matters," the Doctor interrupted. "What else? Anything useful?"

"Solane said something about how they weren't trying to make mindless killers," Claudia voiced her thoughts aloud, hoping he would find some part of it helpful. "And Dinstral argued because he was the first test subject to accept the serum, or mutation, or something like that. Sorry, I don't remember it very well. It's been a while," she added apologetically.

"That's alright. You're doing brilliant," Rose comforted.

The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair, lost in thought. "Mutating. But into what?" Not for the first time, he turned to study her through narrowed eyes. "You said that you don't remember anything past a few weeks ago. Does that mean you don't remember what happened a few weeks ago, or that you don't remember anything at all _ever_?"

"There's nothing. Past a few weeks ago, I might as well have not existed," Claudia admitted quietly. "I don't even know my _name_. I made this one up."

The Doctor frowned thoughtfully and reached into his jacket. He produced a small plastic case that opened with a slight _pop_ as he took out a clear cigar shaped tube with little black cubes on each end.

"I need a blood sample," he explained and at Claudia's nod, he pressed one end to her upper arm.

Claudia winced as an unseen needle pierced her flesh and watched as the clear section was filled. She was used to having her blood drawn after her time in the lab, so the sight of her own blood didn't make her stomach turn.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" The Doctor commented, holding the sample against the light of the console. He stood there stiffly for a moment, and she thought maybe he was deliberating on something.

Finally, he met her eyes, and his expression left Claudia both bewildered and breathless. She couldn't even begin to decrypt the complex emotions swirling in his eyes, much less understand the cause of them. She managed to pick out pain and anger, but the rest were far too deep for her to comprehend.

Then he started, shaking off whatever train of thought he'd been on. He turned suddenly and vanished down a corridor. Claudia took a step, intending to follow, but was stopped by Rose.

"Let's just leave it for now, yeah?" The blonde draped her arm across the other girl's shoulder. "You've been locked up as a science experiment for weeks. What you need is a hot bath and a good night's sleep. We can figure out all the details later, right?"

As desperate as she was for answers, Claudia had to admit that sleeping on a bed, a _real_ bed and not a cold metal floor, sounded heavenly. Then she realized that she had never slept on a bed before, nor had she taken a real bath. Then she was confused again.

Rose smiled sweetly and took Claudia by the arm to guide her deeper into the impossible ship. As interested in exploring as she was, Claudia couldn't push the mental image of the way the Doctor had looked at her out of her mind. It made her feel disoriented and exhilarated, but inexplicably like she'd done something wrong.

"I'll show you around later," Rose was saying, ignorant to Claudia's whirling thoughts. "This place is massive. It could take days to see all the main rooms, and you look like one good push would do you in."

"That bad?" She had no idea what she looked like, only that she was tired. The adrenaline that had been pounding through her system was fading fast, leaving her drained and just a bit shaky.

"Nothing some proper sleep can't fix," the blonde reassured with another warm smile.

They took a few turns and when Claudia was thoroughly lost, Rose showed her down a narrow corridor. There were doors on either side, all metal with a name plate displaying the occupant's name in swirling gold letters.

"Are all these people here?" Claudia asked, startled. She skimmed some of the name tags. Names like _Ian_ , _Sarah Jane_ , and _Adric_ jumped out at her, making her feel a bit overwhelmed at the thought of having to memorize that many people.

"No," Rose hummed, not giving the doors so much as a glance. "Lots of people have stayed with the Doctor over the years. I've just been here a year, and already we've had Jack and Adam travel with us. Adam only stayed for one day, and his room's still here."

"What happened to them all?" Claudia felt the urge to flinch at the name _Jack_. The chances of it being the same Jack that had threatened her in the park were hilariously slim.

Rose shrugged, suggesting that she hadn't given it much thought. "Dunno. Probably had just been visiting. Suppose they just went home."

Something about that didn't sit right with Claudia. Looking up at their names, crafted with such care, she couldn't help but think that they all had been important.

"What about you?" Claudia couldn't help but ask, reaching up to trace her fingers along the name _Jo._ "Are you visiting, too?"

"What makes you say that?" Rose demanded shrilly, causing Claudia to turn to see the blonde staring at her haughtily. "Do I _look_ like I'm temporary?"

"I don't know," Claudia said honestly, unhappy that she'd already managed to offend the closest thing she had to a friend. "Sorry, I didn't…"

Rose sighed heavily through her nose. Her shoulders slumped slightly, and Claudia couldn't help but think there was more to the other girl's anger than her clumsy comment.

"S'alright. Anyway…" Rose nodded at a door without a name engraved on it. It was right next to a door that said _Jack_ and directly across from one that read _Rose_. "That's mine, there."

Claudia couldn't help but notice that Rose's name was in exactly the same script as all the other names in the hall.

She blinked the thought away, deciding to puzzle over the other names later, and instead focused on her own door. She looked to Rose briefly, not wanting to do something wrong.

At the other girl's nod, Claudia reached out and grabbed the handle. The smooth metal went from icy cold to warm and tingly in less than a second. Claudia yanked back her hand, holding it protectively against her chest in case the door randomly decided to bite.

Rose laughed quietly. "It's not going to hurt you. Look."

Claudia watched in fascination as lines began appearing, melting into the metal like an invisible force was stamping them into the door. After a moment, _Claudia_ was written proudly in elegant gold letters.

"That's me," Claudia said dumbly, causing Rose to laugh again.

"Course it does. It's your room, isn't it?"

"My room," Claudia repeated, staring at her name in awe. A small flame of happiness flickered in her chest. _My room._

"Are you gonna open it or not?"

Claudia shook off the bizarre sensation of having something that was _hers_ long enough to actually turn the handle and open the door.

"Blimey," Rose mused, following Claudia through the threshold.

 _Blimey_ , indeed. The low-lit room was fairly large, and absolutely every surface was covered with a variety of pillows, blankets, cushions, wall hangings, paintings, and carpets, none of which contributed to any form of theme or color scheme. Chushy, dysfunctional, organized chaos. Not to mention the sheer number of plants scattered about the room, sitting in ornate pots, sitting on the floor, perched on every table and dresser, and hanging from the ceiling.

Not that it was messy or disorganized. In fact, the clashing colors and surfaces came together rather nicely, creating a warm, somewhat boho environment. A maximalist grandmother's haven, emboldened by the smell of sugar cookies and eucalyptus that wafted faintly through the air.

"Nice. But busy, though," Rose commented.

"I _love_ it," Claudia declared, beaming as she fondled the lace of a throw pillow between her forefinger and thumb. The carpet was thick and squishy under her bare feet, a wonderful change from the cold metal or tile floors she was accustomed to.

"Course you do," Rose laughed. "The TARDIS builds rooms for each person. She must've known how you'd want it."

"How does she know?" Claudia flopped down on the small velvet couch, bouncing lightly on the burnt-orange surface and getting back to her feet.

"She telepathic," Rose explained, bemusedly watching as Claudia tenderly stroked the silky leaves of a tropical plant with a certain amount of reverence that made the blonde wonder if she'd ever seen a plant before. "Gets inside your head."

"She's inside my head?" She touched a finger to her temple experimentally to see if she could feel the machine's presence.

"In a good way," Rose said quickly. "It's a bit weird at first, but you get used to it. Now, look…"

Claudia snapped to attention, blinking at Rose with wide eyes.

"...Bathroom's there." Rose pointed to a door just off to the side of the room. "Closet just over there."

"I don't have any clothes," Claudia said quietly, looking down at her plain white frock and shoe-less feet abashedly.

Rose smiled kindly. "That's alright. The TARDIS keeps it stocked. There's a main wardrobe, too. Stuff from all sorts of time zones. But she keeps all the daily stuff in the personal closets." Her smile broadened. "We can always go shopping, too. There's this one moon, and it's _entirely_ made of shops. Me and the Doctor went a while back, but it'll be nice to go back with someone I can shop with."

"The Doctor doesn't shop?"

"He tries, but he gets bored easy. Honestly, you turn your back for _two seconds_ and he's getting kicked out for starting an argument over the proper use of some sort of space toaster."

Claudia grinned. "Space toaster?"

Rose beamed back. "Yeah. Now, what d'you say you start getting settled? I'm sure the Doctor's got a lot planned for tomorrow."

"Okay," Claudia said simply. She ambled over to the bathroom. The light turned on automatically, revealing the dark stone tile and the smooth curves of the sink, toilet, and footed bathtub.

"This is nice," Rose commented from where she was leaning in the doorway.

But Claudia wasn't paying attention to the bathroom's aesthetics. Her focus was on the large mirror over the sink, where an unfamiliar young woman was staring out at her.

"That's me," she said stupidly, studying her own face.

"Yeah?" Rose said, uncomprehending. She frowned. "Did you not know what you look like?"

Claudia shook her head. She'd caught a few obscure glimpses of her own reflection in the glass windows of shops when she was wandering around on Earth, but those had been faint and distorted. Now, she got the opportunity to properly study herself for the first time.

She was of medium build and average height, with dark hair that came to just below her shoulders and olive skin. Her eyes were soft brown and a few freckles dotted her button nose.

Average, in all, but Claudia thought that she might be pretty. She liked the way her plump lips curved and the shape of her ears. Rose had been right earlier, she did look a little worn. There were circles under her eyes and her cheeks lacked any sort of healthy color while her hair was frizzed out and lifeless.

Claudia turned back to Rose, realizing that the younger girl had been strangely quiet. The blonde was watching her with a slightly sad expression, something akin to pity dancing in her eyes.

Claudia didn't like it.

"Do you need anything else?" Rose asked after a moment, brushing back a lock of yellow hair from her face.

"No, I think," Claudia said softly, turning back to the mirror.

"Then I'll just leave you to… rest or whatever. You know where my room is, if you need anything."

"Rose." Rose turned back, eyebrows raised expectantly. "Do you think he… you know… Can he… _fix_ me?" The question was tinged with desperation.

That's how she felt. Broken. She was half a person without her memories. The scientists had known that and had seen her as nothing more than an experiment. A lesser being.

 _Claudius_. Crippled. Lame.

"If there's anyone who can help you, it's the Doctor," Rose insisted. "I know he was a bit rough earlier, but he will, you'll see. Tomorrow, we'll get it sorted, alright?"

Claudia nodded, comforted by the other woman's conviction.

Rose left Claudia to bathe and sleep. An hour later, Claudia, clean and warm, drifted off to sleep on her bed, covered in way too many blankets and pillows. For the first time, she felt completely safe. Her last thought before sliding into unconsciousness was of her imaginary mother and father. They waited for her in her dreams, calling out to her and making her feel loved.

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _


	4. The Mimic - Part One

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**Chapter Four: The Mimic** _

_**Part One** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

Claudia woke up slowly from within her blanket cocoon. Twenty four hours earlier, she wouldn't have believed it were possible, but now she was so warm and sleepy that it took her a minute to realize what had woken her.

She jolted slightly when there was a knock at the door; three sharp raps, like Dinstral would on the glass of her small prison whenever he wanted her attention. The similarity made her heart drop. For a fraction of a second her still-dozy mind believed that the scientists had found her again.

She brushed the thought away, writing it off as ridiculous, and called out, "Yes?"

Decidedly the exact opposite of Dinstral, Rose tentatively pushed her way inside. She was already dressed, but still rather hazy, like she hadn't been up long enough to be fully awake.

"Morning," Rose greeted with a small smile. "I was gonna let you sleep, but the Doctor gets grumpy if we leave him on his own for too long. How do you feel about breakfast?"

Claudia's stomach rumbled at the mention of food, but then clenched as her mind automatically went to the bland porridge that her diet had consisted of over the last few weeks. But she reckoned that normal people are more than slimy oatmeal.

She nodded, trusting that Rose had something better in mind.

"Great. Get dressed and I'll show you the kitchen."

Claudia fumbled out of bed and made for the closet. She opened the dark purple door and gawked at the sight. Beyond was a massive walk-in closet, complete with a vanity. The entire room, wall to wall, was completely _packed_ with clothes.

There were dresses, jeans, coats, shorts, skirts, a series of undergarments, and more. There was even a smaller connecting room completely dedicated to a myriad of shoes - the purpose to many of them she couldn't even begin to decipher.

If this was a personal closet, Claudia couldn't imagine what the main wardrobe was like. Surely there were more articles of clothing in _this one room_ than she could ever wear in her entire life.

"You alright?" Rose called from the squashy orange couch, where she had sprawled out to wait.

"Yeah," Claudia squeaked. "But what do I wear?"

"Whatever you like."

Claudia considered this. "But I don't _know_ what I like."

Rose heaved a sigh. "Just look for somethin' you _think_ you like, and put it on.

Claudia blinked at Rose. Then at the closet. Overwhelmed, but eager, she plunged into the depths.

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

When Claudia tumbled out of the closet twenty minutes later, she was the living manifestation of her maximalist bedroom - had its style been based on a three year old that insisted on dressing itself. After so long in a cold, colorless environment, she positively _adored_ anything bright and soft, and felt the need to hoard it all like a magpie.

Her short excursion into her personal wardrobe had been filled with her digging through the racks and shelves in search of color. At which point her finds were then separated into piles to be sorted by which colors she liked best.

After a period of painful deliberation and significant indecision, she finally emerged wearing an avocado green jumper decorated with little red frogs under a chunky dandelion yellow cardigan, long rainbow socks over electric blue jeans, solid red trainers with sequins dotting across the toes, all topped off with a neon magenta beanie and matching gloves.

Beaming with excitement, Claudia hardly registered the raised eyebrow Rose directed at her choice of style.

"Blimey," Rose snorted, struggling not to laugh outright in the face of the memory-less woman's optimism. "That's… uh… _boisterous_."

Claudia wasn't sure if this was a compliment or not, but chose to believe it was meant well. She grinned and tugged her hat down more securely on her head.

"Right, then. Come on." Rose paused in front of Claudia's bathroom mirror, taking a moment to smear away a bit of the eye liner caked around her eye that was a smidge uneven.

Claudia made a mental note to ask Rose how makeup worked as she followed her through the maze of corridors that led to the kitchen.

The kitchen was large but homey. It contained the usual variety of items to cook with as well as a number of things that Claudia didn't recognize.

"How do you not get lost?" Claudia inquired as Rose made her way to a machine that appeared to be some sort of drink dispenser.

"You get used to it, I guess. She moves rooms around a lot, so you just sort of guess. Coffee or tea?"

Claudia blanked. "Can you… pick for me?"

Rose nodded and placed a mug beneath the dispenser. With the press of a few buttons, hot liquid was streaming into the mug. Claudia watched, transfixed, as the steam rolled off of it, curling into pretty shapes that swirled and danced like living creatures before dissolving into the air.

Rose settled down with two mugs and two plates of bacon and eggs. Claudia took a sip of her coffee, but grimaced at the taste.

Rose grinned and indicated the dispenser. "Go add milk and sugar."

Claudia hopped to her feet and pondered the machine. It looked complicated, but she found it to actually be fairly straightforward. Curious about her own preferences, Claudia spent more time toying with it than necessary, adding milk and sugar in miniscule amounts until enjoyable.

Sipping at the now lukewarm liquid, she made her way back to the table. Her mouth watered at the collective smell of the bacon, eggs, and coffee. She picked up a fork and, with a certain amount of trepidation, scooped egg into her mouth.

Rose watched bemusedly as Claudia wolfed down the large plate of food at an alarming speed.

"Blimey, you _were_ hungry, weren't ya?" The blonde commented as she took another sip from her own mug, which was filled with tea, quirking her eyebrows at the other woman over the rim of the mug.

Claudia just shrugged, unable to respond around her bacon and egg stuffed mouth. When it was gone, she glanced longingly at the food-dispenser machine. Not that she was still hungry - she was stuffed - but because she wanted to see what other things tasted like.

"You can mess about with that later," Rose promised. " The Doctor will be wondering where we got to. I'm surprised he hasn't come looking for us yet."

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

The Doctor was standing at the console when they arrived, staring at the monitor with a serious expression. From over Rose's shoulder, Claudia made out what appeared to be a black and white video, fuzzy, vague, and lacking any artistic quality. She thought that it might have been from a security camera, but the Doctor abruptly switched it off before she could get a proper look.

"What're you watching?" Rose inquired, bounding over and leaning against the console beside him, close enough for their shoulders to brush.

"Nothing," he said quickly. He yanked down a lever with a certain degree of flair, his previous severity melting like butter. "So, Rose Tyler, where to now? I was thinking maybe the moon of Tyink. Lots of lovely views. Oh! Or the United Republic of Snah. Those people there _love_ a party. The Sun Festivals are the best across three galaxies. Mind you, better not go during the Snee era, never mind why…. or…"

Rose cast Claudia a glance. "Actually, Doctor, shouldn't we be looking into that science ship from yesterday?"

"We took care of the science vessel," the Doctor griped, keeping his eyes fixed on the switches he was fiddling with.

"Yeah, but what about Claudia? Shouldn't we be trying to figure out what happened with her memory?"

Claudia felt a rush of gratitude and looked to the Doctor expectantly.

"The blood sample didn't reveal anything I didn't already know," the Doctor explained, as if doing so inconvenienced him greatly. "A buildup of mutagenic particles mixed with alien DNA. It'll dissipate eventually. Give it a year or two and all the residual components should be completely gone."

"What about my memories?" Claudia asked, quiet and hopeful.

"I don't know," the Doctor said in a flat voice, his emotions carefully concealed behind a mask. "I went back to Cardiff when you were sleeping. The Thalians dropped their test subjects all across the city, probably as some form of stimulus experiment to see how you would respond to stressful situations. That's all."

"What happened then?" Her heart was hammering in her chest. Her fingernails dug painfully into her palms. She barely noticed when Rose wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"You said that one of the test subjects displayed unchecked aggression," he added, not bothering to look at her. "I'm willing to bet that it was a cascade neural degradation response to the treatments. Most likely you experienced something similar, but it manifested differently." He paused. "Bit lucky, actually."

Claudia pondered this for a moment. She certainly didn't feel lucky. Words failed her. All she could do was stare at him, emptiness welling up inside her, reclaiming it's hold on her soul.

"Can't we figure out where she came from?" Rose pressed, fixing the Doctor with a reproachful glare.

"No real way to find out," he sniffed. "Doubtful she's from anywhere near Cardiff. Have you noticed her accent? Indistinct. Thalians are capable of traveling the vortex, so without her memories, there's no way to narrow it down."

"But there's got to be _something_ ," Rose hissed, casting Claudia a sideways glance. "Are you not even going to _try_?"

Claudia said nothing. She stood silently, staring at her glittery shoes without really seeing them. They'd made her feel so happy before, but now she felt nothing when the boisterous sparkles blurred as her eyes welled with tears. She wrapped her arms around herself in an imitation of a hug. She tried not to cry, she really did. But a single tear rolled down her cheek unbidden.

When she finally spoke, she did so quietly that her words could barely be heard over the hum of the engines. "What do I do now?"

"Nothing, I suppose. That's all there is to it." The Doctor shrugged, going back to the console.

" _Doctor!"_

"Rose, _leave it_ ," the Doctor snapped, his voice low and laden with warning. A hidden meaning lingered in his dark eyes, one that Claudia couldn't begin to decipher but Rose took to heart.

Rose blinked at him for a moment, but immediately dropped it, brimming with eager curiosity.

"So, where to?" The Doctor repeated his earlier question, dropping the severity and attempting to take back on a cheerful facade. It almost worked. "Snah?"

"Actually, I was thinking about stopping by home," Rose suggested, voice still tense from the previous exchange.

"What for?" The Doctor scoffed, lip curling into a scowl.

"Oi! Don't start!" The corners of her mouth gave the slightest twitch, like it was an old joke. "I've got that Moeysian necklace for my mum, the one we got on Iria? I promised her a souvenir and I need to get it to her before I forget."

The Doctor sighed wearily but began the sequence. Claudia remembered to grab onto the railing as the ship began to jolt violently, but didn't really feel it. She was busy biting down her despair into bitter acceptance.

When the TARDIS landed, she had steeled herself. Her emotions were locked down tight in a steel box. It left her feeling numb and grey, but it was better than the alternative.

"There. Earth. Powell Estate. 2007." The Doctor looked up from the controls. "A couple months after we left."

"Alright. You go on out. Just give me two ticks." Rose hurried back into the corridor, presumably to retrieve the gift for her mother, leaving Claudia alone with the Doctor.

The Doctor sighed, shrugging on his light brown trench coat as he approached the doors leading to the outside world.

"Where's the Powell Estate?" Claudia asked shyly, wiping her eyes on her sleeve as she followed him out into a grey parking lot.

She surveyed the surrounding buildings curiously. And to be fair, everywhere was interesting after spending the majority of your conscious life locked in a glass case.

The sun was out, it's position suggesting that it was mid to late afternoon. The warm air and thick greenery on the nearby trees and shrubs she could spot through the gaps in the buildings told her it was spring.

She took a deep breath, reveling in the earthy scent.

"London," The Doctor responded, leaving the door open for Rose and leaning against the side of the blue box. He cast her a glance and tugged at his ear awkwardly. "Do you… uh… know where that is?"

Claudia shook her head. The name meant as much to her as the other places they'd mentioned. Iria and Moeysian and Snah. She leaned beside him, careful to leave a few inches of space between them.

The Doctor's frown intensified. He studied her closely for a heartbeat before turning away once more, as if looking at her caused him physical pain.

She couldn't imagine why. Claudia looked down at her outfit. Maybe boisterous hadn't been a compliment after all.

Suddenly self-conscious, she took off her gloves and stuffed them into her cardigan pocket.

"2007?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Rose said that your box travels in time."

"Yep."

"When am I from?"

The Doctor sighed through his nose. "The ship you were on was in October of 2007. Just a few months after where we are now. But like I said, the Thalians are capable of time travel, so you could be from anywhere."

Claudia nodded, pushing back thoughts having to do with her past. "The scientists were Thalians?"

The Doctor nodded, staring resolutely at the graffiti sketched on the wall across the lot.

"And they're aliens?"

"Yep," he said, popping the 'p'.

"And I'm human?"

The Doctor let out a breath that hissed through his teeth. "Yes."

"Like Rose?"

"Like most everyone on Earth."

"What about you?" The question had been nagging at the back of her mind, but she hadn't gotten around to asking Rose yet. "Are you human or Thalian or…?"

"Time Lord," he grunted. "Last of the Time Lords."

"Last?" The Doctor tensed. Claudia noticed and decided not to ask about it anymore. "I'm sorry."

"What is taking her so long?" He grumbled, mostly to himself, before leaning inside the door and calling, "Hurry up, will you?"

"Alright! No need to shout," Rose's voice drifted out, her clanging footsteps audible from outside the TARDIS as she stomped across the console room. When she emerged she didn't hesitate to lead the way across the lot towards one of the buildings.

They had nearly reached it when a dark skinned man dressed in blue coveralls came sprinting around the corner, panting like he'd run a fair distance.

"Look out, here comes trouble," The Doctor grumbled, only half-playful.

"Rose!" The man shouted, a massive grin spreading across his face when he laid eyes on the blonde.

Rose beamed back and he hurried to throw his arms around her shoulders to pull her into a bear hug. "Oh, I've missed you!"

The man released Rose and clapped the Doctor heartily on the shoulder. "I was in the shop but couldn't get away." He shrugged his shoulders sheepishly. "I was worried I'd miss you."

"Time was, you'd hear the TARDIS and come running," Rose teased, eyes narrowing impishly.

"Well I did, didn't I?" He protested, gesturing to his work clothes. "I was under a car. It took a minute." His eyes drifted between the pair for a moment before they rested on Claudia, who had stayed back. He smiled warmly at her. "Don't believe we've met. I'm Mickey, by the way."

"Claudia." Claudia shook his proffered hand with a small smile. He seemed nice, if not a bit dopey.

The Doctor rolled his eyes, nudging Claudia away from Mickey with his shoulder. "Come on then, go and see your mum. I don't want to stay here all day."

"Good luck with that, mate," Mickey chuckled. "Jackie's not about to let Rose be anywhere else. Not today, at least."

"Why? What's today?" The Doctor narrowed his eyes, trying to work out what he'd missed.

Mickey rolled his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't know, maybe Rose's _birthday_."

"It's the 27th?" Rose echoed, her wide eyes blinking in surprise.

"Yeah" Mickey confirmed. "Your mum's been worried that you wouldn't turn up, especially since you missed your last one."

"How old are you?" Claudia inquired, shuffling back from around the Doctor so she could be included in the conversation.

Rose frowned thoughtfully. "It'll be my twentieth, I guess." She shook her head to clear it. "Time's funny on the TARDIS. I don't really know if I'm older than twenty, or still younger."

"Younger, technically," the Doctor offered. "We missed a year, remember?"

"Yeah." Rose frowned. "Does that make me nineteen, then?"

"Does it matter?" The Doctor complained. "You don't exactly live linearly. Technically, it isn't your birthday at all. Not to you, anyway."

"But it is to her." Mickey crooked his thumb in the direction of Jackie's flat. "She's been looking forward to it. She's got presents and everything."

"Fine," the Doctor relented, albeit begrudgingly, as if he were giving in to give the humans a treat. But looking at Rose's determination and Mickey's smug grin, Claudia could tell that the alien didn't actually have much choice. "But _just_ until tomorrow, you got that?"

"Whatever you say, boss," Mickey smirked cheesily.

Together, the small group, headed by Rose and Mickey, who had launched into a deep conversation about what Rose had missed while she'd been traveling, made its way towards one of the buildings.

Naturally, Claudia brought up the rear, lingering a couple yards behind the Doctor. Her first instinct was to walk side by side with him, as the small party was even numbered, but the Doctor had shoved his hands into his coat pockets and prowled stoically after the others with long strides that kept an intentional distance between himself and Claudia.

Instead of struggling to keep up, she resigned to his apparent distaste towards her and focused instead on placing one foot in front of the other, wiggling her toes within her comfortable new shoes and appreciating the barely audible _clacks_ they made on the asphalt.

Claudia's attention was diverted, however, when an uncomfortable tingling sensation itched its way up her spine. Her eyes darted away from her feet as she reevaluated her surroundings in a manner resembling a nervous cat.

Outwardly, there was no significant change in the environment. Rose, Mickey, and the Doctor passed through the glass door without a hitch, though the resulting screech of the rusted hinges made Claudia flinch.

The sensation somewhat passed as she herself entered the building, but through the glass pane she caught a glimpse of a man staring at her from across the lot.

He was tall, that much was apparent. Almost _too_ tall, in Claudia's opinion. From what she could make out at a distance, he was bald. His face appeared to be almost comically wide and dimensionless, contrasting starkly with the long brown cloak that shrouded his entire form, covering everything from chin to feet.

There was something odd about him, but she didn't much care to find out what. In a series of small, rapid movements, Claudia closed the distance between herself and the group and flatly ignored the mildly irritated glance the Doctor gave her when she accidentally stepped on the back of his shoe on the way up the stairs.

When they got to the correct door, Rose let herself in without the slightest hesitation. "Mum?"

"Rose!" Rose's mother, Jackie, a rotund woman with blonde hair similar to her daughter's, poked her head out from a bedroom just off the side of the short hall. She beamed at the younger woman and immediately drew her into a hug. "Oh, I was just _wondering_ when you'd turn up."

She released her from the hug and held her at arm's length.

"Four months," she accused. "It's been _four_ months. You said ten bloody seconds. Not that I actually believed that, but _four bleeding months_."

"I didn't lie," Rose scoffed, taken slightly aback by the confrontation. "It's a time machine, we could've been back in ten seconds."

"But you _weren't_ ," the older woman snipped back. "Instead you leave me sitting here… on my own... for _months_ at a time. When it comes to that long, I start wondering if you're going to come back at all."

Despite Jackie's snide tone, the real emotions behind it were plain. She was lonely and worried for her daughter's safety; terrified that one day Rose wouldn't come back, and she'd be left with nothing.

Claudia felt a flicker of jealousy and longing, trying to imagine what it would be like to have someone worrying over her that way. For all she knew, there _was_. Someone could be waiting for her to come home.

But that almost made her feel worse.

"What're you all still doing crowding my doorway?" Jackie scolded, redirecting her energy into something a little more friendly. "In or out. Hold on…" Claudia blushed slightly upon realizing that she was now at the center of the group's attention. Jackie's eyes were lighter than her daughter's, more hazel than brown. In them was a maternal glint, coupled with an appraising air. "Who're you, then?"

"That's Claudia," Rose answered for her. "She's staying on the TARDIS for a bit."

 _A bit?_ Claudia wondered. _Where else would I go?_

She shuddered at the thought and returned her attention to Jackie, who had wheeled around to confront the Doctor.

"Oh, snatched up another one, have you?" Jackie accused, hands on her hips. "Just like a man. One's not enough, is it? You've just got to surround yourself with pretty young women. You might as well _collect_ them."

"Nice to see you, too, Jackie," The Doctor snipped sarcastically as he moved around her to get into the sitting room.

The Tyler residence was homey, if not on the small side. There were a few magazines laid to the side on the coffee table, full of celebrities and pop culture pieces. Claudia took a place on the edge of the couch and picked up one of the magazines, flipping through to see if anything seemed familiar.

Rose found a seat at the small dining table while Jackie immediately began bustling about making tea. The older woman didn't stop talking for a moment, even while juggling multiple tea cups. Claudia immediately jumped back up to her feet and hopped into the kitchen to take a couple of the cups before Jackie could drop them.

"Anything I can do to help?" Claudia offered with a simple, kind smile.

Jackie nodded and directed Claudia in pouring milk and distributing sugar while the Doctor plucked out one of the newspapers on the dinner table and flipped through it idly, opting to stay standing.

Mickey naturally flopped down next to Rose. The young man produced the remote and switched on the tv, settling on a sports channel.

"... your _birthday_ , though, Rose," Jackie was bickering in her shrill voice. "I've got the shopping done an' everything…"

"Really, mum. You shouldn't have bothered…"

"I've got the cake in the fridge and the rest of the dinner's 'bout halfway finished…"

"Mum…"

"Now, I haven't got any guests together yet. Not that I could, though, could I? What, with your track record… "

"Mum, we don't need guests… "

"... it was lucky you turned up in the right decade. We could call Shareen, I suppose." Jackie grimaced. "On second thought, best not. Doubt she'd come, anyhow."

"Why not?" Rose inquired, blinking in mild alarm. "She's my best mate."

" _Was_ , last I heard," Jackie corrected, looking the slightest bit smug. "She got married, and you were nowhere to be found."

" _Married_?" Rose echoed, voice hoarse with shock. "But… she _can't have_."

"Two months ago."

"But she's only…"

"Twenty." The older woman fixed her daughter with a slightly disapproving glance. "She came around looking for you six months back. Wanted you as a bridesmaid. I told her that you were still off travelling but she wasn't having it. 'If she doesn't want to be part of it, so be it', she said..."

Rose stood blankly while her mother rattled on, flippantly dictating the destruction of the younger girl's friendship. Claudia tried to keep her attention on an article about makeup, but she couldn't help but see how Rose's bottom lip trembled as she drew in a quivering breath.

It was a piteous sight, so much that Claudia was glad when the Doctor, who was oblivious to his blonde friend's distress, interrupted.

"What's this about, then?" He inquired, holding up the newspaper he'd been looking through so it displayed an article about halfway through the paper.

The header read; _**Third Disappearance on the Powell Estate**_.

"Oh, that?" Jackie shrugged. "Yeah, word has it that a few people have gone missing. Police have no idea."

"They've already passed by my place twice to ask questions," Mickey complained. "A few drunk blokes go missing, and who do they turn to? The black guy."

"Oh, come on Mickey," Jackie scoffed. "They're just on you because…"

"Because of all the times they questioned me back when Rose was missing," Mickey said bitterly. "I almost lost my job, you know."

The Doctor coughed to break the tense silence that followed. Claudia, who had been fidgeting nervously in the background, couldn't help but let out a soft sigh of relief when the Doctor decisively threw the newspaper down on the coffee table.

"Well, while we're here…"

"Oh, no you don't!" Jackie cut him off, waving a warning finger under his nose. "Don't you dare go swannin' off! It's Rose's _birthday_ and I'm not having you start all that ridiculous nonsense before we've even had time to cut the cake!"

"I don't _swan_ ," the Doctor retorted.

Before Jackie could respond, Rose stepped between the pair.

"Don't start!" She glanced at the Doctor and shot him a tiny grin that she thought her mother couldn't see, her previous melancholy evaporating like mist. She turned back to Jackie. "Dinner's not ready yet."

"Rose," Jackie pleaded, crossing her arms across her chest.

"You and Mickey finish getting everything ready, and by the time you're done, we'll be back and we'll all have a proper sit down. Alright?"

"Why can't I come help investigate?" Mickey complained. "I helped before with the Slitheen, remember?"

"Well..." the Doctor drawled. "Pressing a few buttons hardly makes you qualified for— "

"What he _means_ to say is," Rose interrupted, fixing Mickey with her cute little tongue-in-teeth grin, "it's probably nothing, anyway. We'll go poke around a bit and be back before you know it, alright? I'm sure mum could use all the help she can get."

Mickey gave a disbelieving scoff, but backed down, flopping back onto his place on the couch.

Rose wheeled back around to beam at the Doctor. "Shall we?"

The Doctor grinned back and offered her his hand to take. "Now then, Rose Tyler…"

He broke off suddenly, blood draining from his face when his eyes rested on Claudia, who had instinctively started to move to follow them. In the emotional turmoil of the past ten minutes or so, everyone - including Claudia - had forgotten she was there.

The Doctor's eyes darted away, fixating on a framed picture of a little blonde girl as he dropped Rose's hand in favor of rubbing his ear lobe between his forefinger and thumb. "Claudia, why don't you, just… stay here for a bit. Help Jackie and Mickey."

Claudia nodded and picked up another magazine, thumbing through and pretending to examine a page to hide any emotion that might have shown on her face.

The young woman rolled the corner of a page between her fingers until it curled in on itself, feeling sheepish at her somewhat needy urge to follow them about like a lost dog.

"Well, that's them, then," Jackie sighed when they'd gone, leaning back against the wall. Her face had lost some of its color, "First time I've seen her in months and she runs off again first thing."

"Tell me about it," Mickey grumbled. "But that's us, I guess."

"That's us," Jackie agreed ruefully before turning her attention to Claudia. She studied the younger woman for a moment, her gaze warmer than before. "What's your story, then?"

"My story?" Claudia echoed. "I've only known them for a day."

"Yeah, but how did you end up wound up in this? The Doctor, I mean," Mickey clarified. "I got kidnapped by a vat of living plastic."

"And my daughter ran off with an alien," Jackie added sourly.

Claudia blinked at them, trying to mentally work out the presented scenarios. Mickey slapped her shoulder good-naturedly.

"Come on, then. You're part of the club now."

"Club? What club?"

"The 'I-Survivied-the-Doctor Club.'" A cheeky grin ate its way across his face. "We should get shirts."

Jackie snorted and went into the kitchen. "Ah, but first, you two shift. We've got work to do. Come help me with roast and tell us about yourself."

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _


	5. The Mimic - Part Two

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**Chapter Five: The Mimic** _

_**Part Two** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

The sun went down. Decorations went up. Claudia told the pair just about everything she knew. Jackie and Mickey were easier to talk to than the Doctor and Rose. Unlike the pair of time travelers, they were sympathetic, but not condescending.

Claudia also figured that it was good that they were working on preparing the birthday dinner while she told her story; it was easier when their attention wasn't completely on her.

"I'm sure it'll all work out, love," Jackie said when she'd finished.

Talking about herself made her tired and sad. There hadn't been many good things in her short little life, and knowing that other people's lives were full of friends and family only served to make her feel pathetic and lonely.

Claudia nodded, not bothering to shrug the older woman's hand off her shoulder. She chewed the inside of her cheek and allowed herself to be distracted by Mickey. The young man wasn't sure how to make her feel better, and had opted instead to cheer her up by launching into a somewhat humorous story about the antics surrounding a monster in a skin suit.

It was almost dark by the time the food was finished. Mickey just about had the table set, but they hadn't seen hide nor tail of the Doctor or Rose.

Claudia sat folding napkins. She'd taken a few minutes to research how to fold them into Opera Houses. She was quite proud of herself, preening when Jackie praised her and said that they made the table look fancy.

"There you have it, then," Jackie complained, sliding into a chair beside Claudia. "'Be back in a bit', she says. How long have they been gone?"

Mickey checked his watch. "'Bout three hours."

"Three hours. What could possibly take three hours? They were just checking 'round the estate." Jackie's sullen look changed into one of anxiety. "What if they're in danger?"

Mickey snorted. "They found their way into trouble, you can be sure of that."

"So, all the aliens and stuff, that's normal, right?" Claudia asked slowly, looking up from her final napkin.

"For them, yeah."

"But… not for everyone else?" It felt like a stupid question, but she didn't think her experiences were shared by other humans and hadn't exactly had the chance to properly ask anyone.

"Not really, I suppose." Jackie settled back in her seat, toying with one of Claudia's napkins. "Couple years ago, I would've told you that there's no such thing as aliens and monsters 'n things. But here I am, waiting to have one sit down at my table and eat dinner."

"C'mon Jackie, he's not that bad," Mickey chided.

Jackie twisted a blonde lock of her hair around her finger but didn't respond. They all lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

Claudia began fidgeting again. She didn't like quiet. She'd had enough quiet with the scientists. Everything felt better when people were talking. Preferably when they were talking to her, because it made her feel like a part of them.

In the last couple of hours, she discovered that she liked to talk, but really didn't have much to talk about. Beyond the circumstances surrounding her amnesia and subsequent abduction, she didn't have any stories to tell. No backstory, history, or memories with which to relate to others. She'd told the two people in front of her everything there was to know about her, so she really wasn't sure of how to break the unbearable quiet that had settled over the trio.

"Is there anything else I can help with?" Claudia piped up again with her shy little smile, toying with her fingers - something that the people around her were quickly recognizing as a nervous tick.

Jackie' eyes softened. "Not really, sweetheart. Food's done. Table's set. Presents wrapped."

"You still got those decorations from a few years back?" Mickey asked. "Streamers and all that?"

"Maybe." Jackie frowned. "What for?"

"If they're gonna be much longer, we might as well brighten up the place, eh?" Mickey smiled at Claudia, who smiled right back.

"Oh, please. Last time we did that she hated it."

"Of course she _said_ she hated it. It was her seventeenth and the place was covered in pink streamers and 'Birthday Girl' signs all over."

"What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing," Mickey corrected swiftly, "but now she might like it more, seeing that it's just us."

"If you want. There's a box in the closet, but I think the rest is in the storage locker downstairs."

"I can get it," Claudia offered at once.

Mickey pushed himself to his feet. "I'll give you a hand."

"Alright then." Jackie went back into the kitchen. "Let me get you the key."

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

The storage locker in question was on the ground floor of the building. About half of the level was the designated car lot for building residents and the other half dedicated to basement storage units. The place, like the rest of the Powell Estate, had seen better days. The concrete was stained with several years worth of dirt and mildew. Only about a third of the security lights still worked, and even they were too feeble to chase away the encroaching dark.

Although a run down, shadowy parking garage wasn't out of the ordinary, Claudia found it extremely unnerving. The cars lurked in the darkness like great beasts, ready to pounce if she dared to look away. The buzzing of the flickering security light made her anxious and twitchy. Someone laughed loudly as they clattered up the stairs. Claudia flinched and pressed closer to Mickey, clinging tightly to his sleeve.

"You always this jumpy?" He asked, though not unkindly.

Claudia shrugged and let go of his arm, somewhat sheepish.

"S'all right. I am too, sometimes." Mickey offered her his hand.

She took it and laced her fingers through his. Friendly human contact was nice, she decided. She liked it. Warmth tingled through her palm and up her arm, soothing her frantic heart and making the place seem a little less intimidating.

"It's alright to be scared," he went on. "You can't embarrass yourself 'round me, cos I'm worse. Here we are, number 23."

They'd found the correct locker, which was tucked away amongst several dozen others. It was a small metal door with a padlock dangling from the handle. Mickey produced the key Jackie had given him and began fiddling with the lock.

It took a moment, as the lock was old and a little rusty, but it soon gave away and the door swung open. Inside the small space was a cluttering of boxes, old and flimsy.

Claudia could see evidence of the boxes' contents peeking out through the holes worn in the weakened seams: old toys, decaying books, clothes that hadn't fit in years. Memories that should've been disposed of, had the owner possessed the nerve. Instead, they'd been buried in this dark place. Left to rot.

Mickey didn't hesitate to dive in. He had a pretty good idea as to what he was looking for and went straight to the middle of the pile.

He read off the labels as he worked. "Rose's toys. 1994. That's when she was 'bout seven. Pete's books. Don't know why she'd bother to keep those. They're just a bunch of old magazines…"

Claudia stood awkwardly behind him, not fond of being idle, but the small space didn't have enough room for two people to work comfortably. She picked at her nails and turned, casting a glance about the shadowy hall with a wary eye.

The man.

Claudia's blood froze. It was the man that she'd seen earlier, she was sure of it. He had the same tall, dark figure and long cloak folded around him. Except now he was closer. Close enough that, despite being encased by shadows, Claudia could tell that her instincts on him earlier had been accurate.

"Can I help you?" Claudia asked, squaring her shoulders and trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. Naturally, she wanted to get as far away from him as possible, and given the option, she would've already been. Except, as fate would have it, he was currently between them and the only exit Claudia knew of.

Half buried in Tyler residence junk, Mickey didn't seem to notice the danger. "No, I've got it."

"Mickey…"

"It's fine. I've got it now. Just give me a hand with — "

Mickey straightened up, neon pink streamers draped around his neck like a cheap plastic lei. He stiffened, the small cardboard box he'd intended to pass to Claudia hovered frozen in his hands. He dropped the box and lifted his chin in an attempt to look tough, though the effect was lessened by the fact that he was still tangled in pink streamers.

"Oi, mate. What'chu doing, lurking about like that?" He challenged. "Whatever you're selling, we don't want any."

Claudia grabbed her new friend's forearm and held it in a death grip. Mickey tugged her behind him protectively.

"Mickey, we need to go," she pleaded, keeping her eyes fixed on the man. "We need to go _now_."

He hadn't seen what was wrong with the man, Claudia realized. He hadn't noticed the flat, too large eyes that looked to be painted on in an overly friendly shade of blue. Hadn't given any thought to the lipless mouth that sat too low on the face, nor the hairline fracture that bisected his face from chin to forehead. The floor-length cloak draped over him wasn't made of fabric, but of a kind of feathery, overlapping scales.

"What for? I'm not about to be afraid of some bloke just cos he thinks it funny to — "

The man's face split down the middle, opening up like shutters and peeling to the sides. The cloak unfurled by its own accord, revealing them to be colossal wings. Claudia saw bulbous, insect eyes and six long, spindly legs.

The gargantuan moth dressed up as a man reared back before diving towards them, chittering and hissing. Claudia cried out and threw herself to the ground, landing awkwardly at the juncture of the wall and the floor. Eroded concrete scraped her hands as she scrambled away on all fours, just barely ducking the massive wings that beat over her head.

Mickey wasn't so lucky. Where Claudia had ducked, he had frozen. He let out a horrified wail as the moth seized him, locking him in its disgusting legs. As if he weighed nothing, the moth flapped its wings and dragged him away, deeper into the basement.

Stupefied by fear, Claudia could only watch. It was only once her friend's frightened cries had faded that she was able to move. She stood shakily, using the wall for support.

Panic gripped her chest, making it near impossible to breathe. Her friend was gone. She was alone. What was she to do?

Her racing mind struggled to come up with options. Her first instinct was to run to Jackie, but she couldn't imagine the older woman doing anything besides panicking. The Doctor and Rose would be the best option - except she had no idea where they were. By the time she found them Mickey could be —

Horrible scenarios ran through her head. He would be killed, surely. The moth would eat him, at least, or worse...

Claudia didn't have quite enough experience with horrible things to come up with anything worse than death, but her thoughts flew to the boy in the cage; she imagined Mickey choking, sputtering, and twitching - weaker and weaker as his life bled away.

The thought of that happening to one of her only friends was unbearable. She replayed the memory over and over, becoming more and more distraught until she found herself taking one step, then another, and another. Deeper into the shadows she went. Deeper into the Moth's domain. Scared out of her wits, of course, but equally determined to find her friend.

_**~0~0~0~** _

_**.** _

_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

The basement was even worse than she imagined. It was dark and quiet. Claudia wandered the rows of storage lockers alone with only the sound of her shoes on concrete and that of her own breath for company.

Although the basement wasn't very big, the rows of storage units made the place feel like a labyrinth. Claudia trembled as the lights flickered overhead, but kept going.

She knew that this was a bad idea. Even if she found Mickey and the Moth, what could she do about it?

She didn't have the slightest clue.

Off to the right, something rattled. Claudia froze. She waited, her senses on overdrive. Another minute or so passed, but she didn't hear anything else.

There was a corner up ahead. She crept toward it, keeping to the shadows and flattening her body against the wall. When she reached the edge, she took a deep, calming breath, and peeped her head out.

She was just in time to see a dark mass sweeping along near the end of the adjacent hall. Miraculously, it didn't seem to have noticed her. Soundlessly, it turned the far corner and vanished from sight.

Claudia's heart was beating out of her chest, so loud that she was shocked the moth couldn't hear it. But at least she had a pretty good idea where it was. With any luck, it would leave the basement to go hunting; as long as she didn't draw any attention to herself, it would be a while before it came back.

Quiet as a mouse, Claudia slipped around the corner. There was a door along the wall that looked to lead into a maintenance closet. It was distinct from all the other doors and lockers in the basement, but what drew Claudia to it was that it had been left slightly ajar and a pale, sickly light came from the room within.

Slowly, carefully, she nudged the door open wider. It gave a hideous creak that made her cower, but she was too invested to turn back. The door didn't open easily. It caught on the floor, which was covered in some kind of sticky wool.

Claudia found herself standing in a dark room. Only one of the overhead lights remained, and even it was covered by the same wool-like substance, which diffused the light and gave the room an ethereal glow. The white wool blanketed every surface, like a deep blanket of snow.

Except it wasn't snow. Not that Claudia had ever actually seen snow, but she was certain that what she was seeing now wasn't it.

It was a web.

She crouched down and felt the fine tendrils that clung to her shoes. It was the same material found in spider webs, except instead of being intricately woven into a complex trap, it was spun together and spat out everywhere until the floor, walls, and ceiling were all buried under at least a foot of it.

A small, muffled sound drew her attention upward. Directly above her, woven to the ceiling, was a person's head.

Just the head.

"Hello!" The head said pleasantly.

She almost screamed. Almost. But before she could, she realized that the head wasn't disembodied at all; it was just the only part of the owner visible. And more than that, she recognized the face.

It belonged to the Doctor.

His hair was slicked back and tangled in webs, but it was definitely him. For the first time since she met him, he fixed her with a broad grin. It was sunny and brilliant and almost had her smiling back.

"Claudia! Lovely!" The Doctor squirmed against his bonds. "What took you so long?"

"Who's that? Claudia?" Another voice bounced out at her. Claudia turned and saw Rose's blonde hair peeking out from another mound of web.

Rose hadn't been as lucky as the Doctor; when the moth bundled her up, it had turned her face against the wall and effectively plastered her in place. Since then, it was evident that Rose had been struggling to turn herself around, but with minimal success.

Claudia's eyes darted across the room, looking for Mickey. There were other lumps in the webbing, swelling like drifts in the not-snow. All human sized. All motionless.

"Mickey?" Claudia asked worriedly. She looked up at the Doctor. "It took Mickey. Is he…?"

"He's here. He's fine," the Doctor reassured her. He inclined his head to a human-bundle on the floor by the right-hand wall. "He passed out, I think. But he should be fine."

Sure enough, the bundle groaned and shivered. Then swore.

"Mickey?" Rose called. "You alright?"

"Rose?" Mickey's bundle piped hopefully. "Where are you? No, better. Where am _I_?"

"We can catch up later," the Doctor cut in, sounding impatient. "Right now we need to focus on getting unstuck. Claudia—" Claudia perked up at the sound of her name. "My sonic screwdriver. I dropped it when the Mimic attacked. By the…" He nodded towards the other lumps in the nest. "By the far wall."

 _By the bodies_ , Claudia realized with mounting alarm. _That's what you mean to say._

Claudia forced herself to obey. She kicked her way through the web carpet towards the area indicated. There were three bodies; one was cocooned to the wall, one to the ceiling like the Doctor, and one on the floor. She spotted the screwdriver poking out between the wall and bundle on the floor.

She had to step over the entombed body to reach the sonic, but her legs weren't very long and she ended up stepping a little short. Her foot broke through some of the webbing on the corpse's side; it cracked like a husk. She was making a point to not look, so she didn't see anything, but the smell of death and rotting meat oozed into the air.

Struggling not to gag, Claudia hastily staggered back around until she stood underneath the Doctor.

"Good." The Doctor, ignorant to her distress, tried worming around again. "Setting 127 should do the trick. Just there, the button on the side."

It took Claudia a moment to work out how to change the settings, but she was able to do as she was told and within a minute the webbing was tearing, suddenly unable to hold the Doctor's weight.

"Ah, yes! Almost…" The Doctor's eyes widened. "No, hold on…"

The cocoon gave away all at once. The Time Lord fell. Claudia was just able to leap back in time for the Doctor to faceplant at her feet.

The Doctor groaned and rolled over to his back, muttering, "1 _37_. It was setting 137. Not 127."

Claudia looked down at him, brow furrowed with concern. "Are you okay?"

He sat up abruptly, turning his head once side to the other and causing his neck to pop. He stretched, then jumped to his feet in a single bound.

"That's better!" The Doctor growled to himself. He held out his hand for the screwdriver, which Claudia gladly relented. "Now then! We best hurry, before she comes back."

Claudia shadowed the Doctor to where Rose was buried and set to freeing her.

"What was that thing?" Claudia asked, picking at her fingers. She cast a glance over at the spider-web mummies. "What did it do to them?"

" _Leipedoptera extremis,_ " the Doctor said without looking up from his task, the name rolling expertly off his tongue. "Less formally known as a Mimic. They're found all throughout the galaxy, but it's rare for one to come out this far. They usually mate on their homeworld and then stowaway on transport vessels to other planets. When they find a suitable location, they literally mimic the dominant life form and hunt for whatever's on the menu. Wraps it up and stores it until it's soft enough to eat. Brutal, but effective."

Rose was able to struggle free of the last tendrils and straightened up, looking a little flustered. Webs still matted her hair to her cheek. She swiped at it with a disgusted expression, but only succeeded in tangling it even more.

She grinned up at the Doctor, her tongue poking out between her teeth. "Hello!"

The Doctor's eyes softened. "Hello."

They embraced. Claudia felt like she was intruding on the moment, but hadn't forgotten that Mickey was still buried. The sooner her friend couldn't be mistaken for one of the corpses, the better.

She coughed and shuffled anxiously, unsure of how to politely get the Doctor's attention.

The Doctor let go of Rose like he'd been burned. He seemed confused for a fraction of a second, but then turned to fix Claudia with heated glare.

Claudia withered under his eye. Impulsively, she stared down at where her shoes were buried in the web and lifted her hand to point at the lump she knew to be Mickey.

He'd been more or less quiet over the past few minutes, but she could tell by the occasional grumpy mumble that he was still conscious.

"We'll have you out in a minute, Mickey," Rose promised.

"No, yeah. Take your time," the mound said airily, sounding rather dejected.

The Doctor checked his watch and cursed under his breath. "We're running out of time. The coils will be charged by now, we can't let them go into another cycle. It'll take too long to get them ready again."

"Coils?" Claudia echoed, confused.

"Yeah, like one of those bug traps," Rose supplied. "We lure it in and then _ZAP!"_

The Doctor grinned fondly before becoming serious again. "Trouble is that the equipment I have isn't designed to hold the amount of power we need to incapacitate the Mimic, so I've got it on a cyclical charge."

Agitated, Mickey squirmed frantically against the web. "You can't just leave me here!"

"We're not!" Rose insisted. She turned to the Doctor. "You go. I'll stay and help Mickey."

"No," the Doctor dismissed sharply. "I'll need your help."

"I'll do it," Claudia offered. The Doctor glowered for a moment, but reluctantly held out the sonic for her to take.

Claudia held the device carefully, suddenly worried that she might accidentally break it. The last thing she wanted was to give the Doctor a reason to dislike her more.

"Setting 137, remember!" He called over his shoulder. " _Not_ 127\. Two minutes! Rose, come on!"

The pair tripped out of the room as fast as the web floor would allow, leaving Claudia and Mickey alone in a room where they were outnumbered by the dead.

_**~0~0~0~** _

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_**~0~0~0~** _

Claudia did her best to ignore the bodies in the room. They were hidden by the web, but it was enough to know they were there. The room still smelled like death and that was something that was awfully hard to overlook.

With shaking hands, Claudia was eventually able to free Mickey. Her friend was finally able to sit up, looking as frazzled as she felt. His face was ashen, but he still tried to smile reassuringly at Claudia.

"Come on," he said as Claudia helped him to his feet. "Think we both could use a cuppa."

They leaned heavily against each other as they wandered back through the basement. Desperate for physical reassurance, Claudia had both arms wrapped around Mickey's middle with his arm draped across her shoulders.

Despite the turn of events, they did remember to stop back by Jackie's storage locker on the way. Together they were able to get everything back inside, lock it back, and hurry back up the stairs with two boxes of decorations.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jackie demanded as soon as they opened the door. "How long does it take to get a couple of bloody-"

She broke off when Mickey dropped the box he was carrying to lock the door behind them.

Jackie's eyes went wide. "What the hell happened? Are you alright? Did you see-"

"Yeah, we saw Rose," Mickey said bitterly. He ignored the patches of web that still clung to his clothes in favor of digging through the box. His movements were quick and sharp, jerking out bubblegum pink streamers and slamming them down with a lot more force than necessary. "Both her an' the Doctor. They're alright, of course. Saving the world with… with... with butterfly nets and balls of string!"

He tossed an unopened pack of cheap paper party hats onto the table, upsetting one of Claudia's napkins.

"Never mind me, though," Mickey went on, ignoring Claudia when she tripped over his leg in her haste to fix the napkin. "No. Never mind that I was all wrapped up like a flippin' sausage. Got to save the world, right?"

Anxious, Claudia fixed the first napkin and found another on the kitchen counter. It was dirty and in no condition to join the others on the table, but it gave her hands something to do. She folded it with the same amount of care she'd given to the others, listening to Jackie and Mickey talk.

Mickey's frustration dissipated as suddenly as it appeared. He scrubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, mumbling, "Sorry, didn't mean to shout. I just… I can't… sorry."

Jackie nudged him away from the decorations. "It's alright. Off you go. You know where the shower is. I'll make us some tea, alright?"

"Yeah," Mickey relented, shuffling towards the bathroom. "Yeah. Thanks, Jacks."

Jackie stood quietly for a few minutes. When Claudia finally plucked up the courage to leave the safety of the kitchen, she found the older woman kneeling over the box of decorations. She held the _Birthday Girl_ banner, lovingly rubbing the thin plastic between her fingers, staring at the words without actually seeing them.

Claudia hovered at the edge of the room, wanting to offer comfort but not entirely sure what Jackie needed. This was something Claudia couldn't understand, let alone fix. To her, the emotion behind Jackie's eyes ran just as deep as that in the Doctor's.

Perhaps even deeper.

After a minute, Jackie seemed to shake herself out of it. She lifted her head and fixed Claudia with a warm smile.

"C'mon love. I'll show you how to make tea properly, and then we'll get those decorations up. My mate Bev always says—"

_**~0~0~0~** _

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_**.** _

_**~0~0~0~** _

Doctor and Rose thundered up into the flat about an hour later, laughing at some joke made three times funnier by the adrenaline surging through them. They banged loudly at the door and were let in by Jackie. Rose slipped under her mother's arm, dodging her barrage of questions and escaping into the living room, only to freeze.

The flat had been decked in pink and white. Streamers flowed across doorways and flickered in the windows, occasionally brought to life by the air vents when the heating turned on. Balloons blown up by Mickey drifted lazily across the floor, couches, and tables. Claudia had tried her hand at blowing up balloons, but was forced to stop when she started getting lightheaded.

Mickey was out of the shower. Although it hadn't done anything for the webbing that still clung to his shirt, it seemed to have grounded him. Somehow he was able to stamp down his frustrations, because he smiled and laughed convincingly at Rose's expression when she saw the cheesy ornamentation that exploded over every available surface.

"I'm 20!" Rose groaned, struggling not to smile. " _Really_ mum. Where'd you even find this at? Some of this you had up at my 7th birthday."

"What'd you think Claud and I were in the basement for?" Mickey demanded. "Unlike you, we don't look to get captured by giant moths for fun."

Jackie bustled over and tried to scrape away some of the web matting her daughter's hair. "What else did you expect us to do while you were off doing god-knows-what?"

Rose batted her mother away and scowled up at the banner, which had been strung across the doorway to the kitchen. " _Birthday Girl?_ "

"I dunno, Rose." The Doctor drawled, fishing a pair of glasses from his coat pocket and perching them on his nose. He amusedly kicked at one of the balloons that had nosed up to his foot. "I think it suits you perfectly."

A light dusting of pink matching the banner spread across her nose and cheeks. She lightly smacked the Doctor in the arm. He feigned being hurt, but was grinning again by the time everyone took their seat at the table.

_**~0~0~0~** _

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_**~0~0~0~** _

Dinner and cake passed without much of a fuss. The food was decent and everyone was in good humor. Claudia didn't say much, but was perfectly happy to sit and listen to everyone else's chatter. She was fascinated by the birthday traditions and decided that cake was the best thing ever invented. She was thrilled to be included and beamed when Rose started giggling over the napkins.

In Claudia's mind, everything was good. The party was enough to sweep the horrible things she'd seen out of her thoughts. She didn't think about the giant moth and the bodies again until afterwards, when everyone who slept was doing so and all was quiet.

Jackie and Rose had retired to their respective bedrooms. Mickey hadn't been willing to take the walk back to his apartment after his ordeal, no matter how many times he was assured that the monster no longer posed a threat. He found his place on the couch and was snoring away within five minutes. The Doctor, who didn't seem to sleep, was sitting at the table, reading by the light streaming out of the window into the kitchen.

Although her room on the TARDIS was calling her, Claudia didn't like the thought of being in the strange box all alone. She didn't think the Doctor would take kindly to the idea either. Instead, she curled up in the recliner with a blanket.

As much as she wanted to sleep, she couldn't. The Mimic had been frightening in a way she wasn't familiar with; the ghost of its presence loomed over her, so heavy and tangible that she was half convinced she would open her eyes to find it towering over her.

But the Mimic wasn't the worst of it. The cocooned bodies haunted her, their images burning into her mind every time she closed her eyes. It certainly didn't help that she knew they were still there, tucked away in a lonely room somewhere beneath her feet.

The Doctor turned a page.

He hadn't spoken directly to her all through dinner, except to ask for his sonic back. All the same, Claudia found herself drawn to him, more due to the fact that he was the only other person still awake than wanting to be comforted specifically by him. Taking her blanket with her, she shuffled across the room to join him at the table.

A muscle in the Doctor's jaw twitched when she took the seat next to him. She knew that he wasn't her biggest fan, but she couldn't go another moment without having someone to talk to. He seemed content to ignore her at first, but couldn't get away with it for long.

"Are they still down there?" Claudia asked anxiously, her voice hardly more than a whisper.

The Doctor wet his finger and turned the page. "Who?"

"The bodies." She cast a glance at Mickey to ensure she hadn't disturbed him. "Are they still down there?"

He kept his eyes firmly on the book, though his eyes didn't move across the page. "Suppose they are, yeah."

Claudia took his lack of reaction as an invitation to shuffle closer. "What's going to happen to them? We aren't just gonna leave them there, are we?"

"No, of course not," the Doctor scoffed. "In the morning I'll leave an anonymous tip with UNIT. They'll take care of them."

She nodded uncertainly, somewhat mollified. "What's UNIT?"

"United Nations Intelligence Taskforce." At her blank expression, he elaborated, "The people that deal with that sort of thing. Don't worry about it."

"Oh." Claudia drew her blanket tighter around her. "Will they take care of the Mimic's body too?"

She hadn't seen a body, but assumed there was one. There wasn't a scenario in her mind where the giant moth 'wasn't a threat' that didn't involve it being dead.

"Nothing left. Reduced to dust."

Claudia nodded slowly, trying to imagine what that must've been like. She shuddered, looking down at her hands and picturing them withering away until they crackled and crunched like fallen leaves, dissolving until they blew away in the wind. She applied the same death to Rose, Jackie, and Mickey and became particularly upset.

She chewed at her bottom lip and leaned into the Doctor. Despite wanting to curl up in his arms and hide against his chest, she settled with pressing her forehead against his shoulder.

The Doctor went rigid. He tolerated it for exactly ten seconds; so exact that she could imagine him counting to ten in his head.

He stood abruptly, causing her to stumble forward. She just barely caught herself on the edge of the table. Claudia looked up to find him staring down at her with that unreadable expression.

"Get some sleep," he said curtly. "You've had a long day."

Without another word, the Time Lord snatched up his trench coat from the back of the chair and made a beeline for the door. Claudia listened to the front door shut and lock with two sharp, decisive snaps.

Suddenly lonely, Claudia resigned herself to her reclining chair. When she finally slept, she found herself locked in dreams of moths and dead bodies in experiment tanks.

Despite all she had experienced in her short life, she fell asleep hoping for less violent days; all the while knowing deep down that the chances of those were exceptionally low.

_**~0~0~0~** _

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End file.
